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Anime Podcasts
469 shows and 53,306 episodes sit under Anime.
Anime Summit Podcast, The Anime Book Club Podcast, and Kanzenshuu bring seasonal reviews, unruly fan talk, and detailed Dragon Ball history.
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How Anime podcasts differ, and which to try
The ending song kicks in and the episode is still running in your head: the dub line that landed oddly, the flashback that finally explained a character's temper, the scene where the music dropped out. At their best, anime podcasts give that feeling somewhere to go. They can tell you which new series deserves your week. They can also explain why dub professionals would cut a gag they feel only works in Japanese, or report that Akira Toriyama's assistant inked Goku's hair until Goku went Super Saiyan.
The range is wide. At one end, a solo host recaps a single episode in 25 minutes. At the other, three friends spend 47 minutes on a 71-minute film and come away unsure what it meant. In between are dub professionals watching their own shows for the first time, two brothers grading a season, and fans cataloguing one franchise.
The arguments are about what the label promises. On September 23, 2026, the US Apple Podcasts Animation & Manga chart, as reported by Podfollow, put Trash Taste Podcast at No. 1. That show's own listeners disagree about how much anime talk it owes them: one joked that much of it is filler, and another argued that the hosts' otaku perspective earns the name. A second tension is pace. In a March 2025 r/TrueAnime discussion, one contributor argued that thoughtful anime analysis still exists but often arrives slowly. Weekly company and slow depth are different pleasures, and the shows below sit at different points between them.
Stories from the booth
Spark + Chaos: A Journey of Thought with Kyle and Leah starts from a premise that sounds like a confession. Kyle Phillips and Leah Clark have worked in anime dubbing for years as writers, directors and voice actors, but they have never watched the shows they have worked on. Their My Hero Academia viewing sets that right, loudly.
In What's the Fish Poop? they bring in Tyler Walker, the voice of Gang Orca, and the talk drifts from the fight on screen into dub history. One story covers a Funimation interview in June 2002 followed by months of silence. Another describes a Fairy Tail session where the closing monologue left everyone crying after someone ran down the hall to fetch Walker to direct it. The best moment is a small piece of craft. Faced with a gag repeated well past three times, the conversation settles on cutting it: "Because it's not our funny."
With Spark + Chaos: A Journey of Thought with Kyle and Leah, the trade-off is patience. Palate Cleanser 5 spends long stretches on a camera that may not be recording, a bird named Mowgli, and an old Flash website where you vote on whether a man is saying "bacon" or "beer can." If you want a tight recap, this is the wrong room. If you want to hang out with working dub talent, it is the right one.
Dub Talk approaches the same craft from the audience side. In Dub Talk 316: Grave of the Fireflies the panel digs up the credits of little-known cast members. They also point out a detail worth having before a rewatch: brighten one of the film's posters and an American bomber appears above the fireflies. The Rose of Versailles entry in its Summer at the Movies run weighs a two-hour musical adaptation that put the series into English for the first time, songs included. The panel praises the cast's French pronunciation and still lands on a qualified verdict, with one panelist admitting, "I don't love this dub."
One episode at a time
After Hours Arc is a solo project with a narrow, useful promise: recaps told from a manga-free point of view, so a book reader's foreknowledge stays out of it. Witch Hat Atelier Recap | Ep.3 The Dadah Range Test runs 25 minutes and lingers on the episode's own pleasures. The Great Hall turns out to be under water, and Coco's teacher skips the stairs entirely, jumping straight down to the centre.
The judgments are character-first. In BLACK TORCH Recaps | What's My Name?, after walking through a flashback to Ichika's childhood, the host states the test plainly: "does your backstory explain why you are the way you are?" This is the listen for someone a few hours behind a weekly release who wants to relive it rather than litigate it. Readers who like that mode can go further on the TV Recaps page.
Grading the season
Mic Check, Waifu, Waifu! is two brothers working through each anime season, and it is liveliest when they push back on each other. In 346 - Spring Fling (Journal With Witch Review), one brother gives a 9.5 and gets teased for sounding disappointed about it. The defence is that the story resonated even without the heroine's loss in his own life. The characterization, down to a side character who missed out on a hospital job, gets called a perfect 10. Early in that episode, one host calls Nippon Sangoku probably "one of the worst paced shows I've ever seen" while granting that it looked beautiful.
They handle spoilers with care. In 344 - 2026 Winter Anime Wrap Up they promise a warning before the spoiler talk in the back half. They also note that older episodes keep picking up plays, probably from people coming back for exactly that.
Anime Cherry Bomb is softer and more meandering, with Aaron and Jay reading a synopsis in these episodes and then following what moved them. In Episode 361: SpyXFamily (Season 3) they fix on the fact that Lloyd's real name is still redacted, and on the first lie he told as a child. In Episode 360: March Comes In Like A Lion (season 1) one host observes that scenes without music feel more significant. Near the end of that episode they run through what viewers should be ready for, including alcohol abuse, family abuse and depression. For more verdict-driven listening, the TV Reviews and TV Discussion pages are the next stop.
Keepers of a single franchise
Kanzenshuu - The Original Dragon Ball Podcast is for the fan who reads the footnotes. In Kanzenshuu - The Podcast: Episode #0532, Mike and Vaughn discuss Manga Barcelona and Takashi Matsuyama, Toriyama's second assistant on late Dr. Slump and early Dragon Ball. Vaughn brings back a confirmation that Matsuyama inked Goku's hair until the Super Saiyan transformation. He also reports that Toriyama, working with a single assistant, planned his pages around that workflow. Near the end, the episode turns to pinning down V-Jump release dates.
Mike, who goes by VegettoEX, also turns up on other shows. Guest Appearance: We Gotta Podcast - The Plan to Eradicate The Saiyans Review ft. VegettoEX surfaces the point that a planet's backstory came from a Toriyama memo to the anime staff. So even though it never appeared in the manga, it "did come from the original author himself."
Movie night
Films get their own kind of attention. Dub Talk Presents: Summer at the Movies (Season 9) - Paprika stays close to performance. Cindy Robinson voices both the straight-laced Atsuko Chiba and her free-spirited dream persona, and the panel listens for how she keeps the two distinct. One practical note: as far as one host could tell from digging, the English dub was available only on home video.
JoJo's Bizarre Podcast covers the JoJo adaptations and has roamed well beyond them. Ep. 470 - What Are Angels (Angel's Egg) has the friends wrestling with Mamoru Oshii's film, citing an apparent 10-second average shot length, with one admitting, "I would watch this again on 3X speed." Ep. 469 - Just Steal the Ring (Lupin III The Castle of Cagliostro) is warmer. It savours a bride in a wedding dress fleeing from thugs as "such great visual storytelling." Film-first listeners can continue to the Film Reviews and Movie Reviews pages.
Next door: Western animation
Lunar Sea Spire covers cartoons, but its setup suits anyone who likes watching alongside someone. In Episode 599: The pilot of The Amazing Digital Circus, David is on nearly his third watch while GC13 sees the show only as the podcast goes. The 23-minute conversation turns on a good question: is the show more interested in its lore, its people or philosophy? The Animation page is the place to keep going, and the TV & Film guide leads to the rest of the screen.
Where to start
- For behind-the-scenes stories: Spark + Chaos: A Journey of Thought with Kyle and Leah, What's the Fish Poop? You get the voice of Gang Orca in conversation and a lesson in cutting a joke that does not translate. Be caught up to the Gang Orca fight first.
- For listeners who watch in English: Dub Talk, Dub Talk Presents: Summer at the Movies (Season 9) - Paprika. It is a performance-focused discussion of a single film, with no series homework.
- For a weekly watch-along: After Hours Arc, Witch Hat Atelier Recap | Ep.3 The Dadah Range Test. Watch that episode first and the recap will feel like a second viewing.
- For Dragon Ball completists: Kanzenshuu - The Original Dragon Ball Podcast, Kanzenshuu - The Podcast: Episode #0532, for production history brought back from a convention.
- For a film night with friends: JoJo's Bizarre Podcast, Ep. 469 - Just Steal the Ring (Lupin III The Castle of Cagliostro). Watch the film first, then let three friends argue about it with you.
Featured shows below are part of the PlayNext catalog. Updated weekly.
Featured shows
8 shows, described rather than listed
A short write-up for each, plus the job it does in this guide.
Kyle and Leah turn recurring intro and show-and-tell segments into a fast, messy back-and-forth full of sudden questions and goofy detours. It suits listeners who like the conversation left unsmoothed.
The duo races through anime recaps, seasonal wrap-ups, old games, and whatever tangent interrupts next. It suits listeners who want detailed fan talk with profanity, nostalgia, and zero stiffness.
A solo host thinks aloud through Black Torch and Witch Hat Atelier recaps, weighing what works, what gets dropped, and what fits the season. It suits listeners who value candid, taste-driven reactions.
A loose panel mixes seasonal reviews, anniversary episodes, games, guests, and community segments with interruptions and improvised bits. It suits listeners who want anime criticism with friend-group energy.
Two animation-literate fans move briskly from recap to jokes, objections, theories, and comparisons. It suits listeners following Amphibia or new animation pilots who enjoy dry, informed banter.
Kanzenshuu tracks Dragon Ball history through dates, versions, product lines, fandom projects, wiki work, and guest appearances. It suits informed fans who enjoy specific franchise minutiae.
This duo moves between reviews and interviews, connecting films, festivals, books, cast trivia, and franchise history through reflective tangents. It suits pop-culture listeners comfortable with crossover territory.
A fast, interruption-friendly panel recaps each Digimon BeatBreak episode, turning plot points into arguments, theories, comparisons, and running jokes. It suits fans who already speak the franchise's language.